[Grovenet] Guantanamo

[Ed Davie]

Guantánamo by the Numbers
  a.. By DAVID BOWKER and DAVID KAYE
Published: November 10, 2007
SIX years ago this Tuesday, President Bush granted 
American armed forces sweeping authority to detain 
and interrogate foreign members of Al Qaeda and 
their supporters and to use military commissions 
to try them. By doing so, the president set in 
motion the creation of military commissions and 
the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.


Raymond Verdaguer

Related
Times Topics: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
The Bush administration may legitimately claim 
certain benefits from the Guantánamo system. Some 
dangerous men are held there, and valuable 
intelligence has probably been gathered, perhaps 
even some that has enabled the government to 
disrupt terrorist activities.

But the costs have been high. Guantánamo has come 
to be seen worldwide as a stain on America's 
reputation. The military commissions have failed 
to deliver justice, stymied by the federal courts' 
refusal to permit the president to create a system 
at odds with United States courts-martial and the 
international law of war.

Meanwhile, the number of detainees at Guantánamo 
has steadily dropped to a little over 300, from 
its peak of more than 700, no more than 80 of whom 
are likely to face any kind of American 
prosecution. Not a single defendant has gone to 
trial, and only one has pleaded guilty.

Today, most American leaders acknowledge the need 
for a new approach. The president himself has 
expressed a desire to see the detention camp 
closed. But he has only a little more than a year 
to do so before the next president takes office. 
It's time to take a close look at this system of 
detention and prosecution and move quickly to 
establish viable alternatives. With apologies to 
the Harper's Index, the following data provide a 
historical snapshot.


A Denim Jacket for Your Time

Number of "high-value detainees" now at 
Guantánamo: 15

Approximate percentage of detainees found to have 
committed "hostile acts" against the United States 
or coalition forces before detention: 53

Approximate number of countries of which detainees 
are citizens: 40

Most represented countries at Guantánamo: Saudi 
Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen

Cost of building Guantánamo high-security 
detention facilities: about $54 million

Estimated annual cost of operating Guantánamo: $90 
million to $118 million

Cost of "expeditionary legal complex" for the 
military commission (under construction): $10 
million to $12 million

Number of books in the Guantánamo detention 
library: 5,143

Number of Korans issued to detainees from January 
2002 to June 2005: more than 1,600

Number of daily calories per detainee: Up to 
4,200, including halal meat

Average weight gain per detainee: 20 pounds

Number of pills dispensed per day: 1,000, to 
200-300 detainees

Number of apparent suicides: 4

Number of apparent suicide attempts: 41, by 25 
detainees (as of May 2006)

Number of detainee assaults on guards using 
"bodily fluids": more than 400

Date of first visit to Guantánamo by the 
International Committee of the Red Cross: Jan. 18, 
2002

Approximate number of visits by lawyers to 
Guantánamo detainees so far this year: 1,100

Month of first habeas corpus petition filed to 
challenge detention at Guantánamo: January 2002

Number of habeas corpus petitions filed in federal 
courts on behalf of detainees: roughly 300

Number of detainees designated by the president as 
"eligible" for trial by military commission: 14

Number actually charged with crimes (for example, 
murder and material support for terrorism): 10

Number of pending cases: 3

Number of convictions: 1 (an Australian who 
pleaded guilty to material support of terrorism 
and was sentenced to nine months of confinement in 
his home country)

Estimated number of detainees who may be charged 
in the future: 80

Month of first release of a detainee: May 2002 
(one detainee repatriated to Afghanistan because 
of an "emotional breakdown")

Approximate number of detainees released: 445

Approximate number of current detainees found 
eligible for transfer or release: 70

Countries to which Guantánamo detainees have been 
transferred: Albania, Afghanistan, Australia, 
Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, 
Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, 
Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, 
Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, 
Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda, Yemen

Most recent announced transfer of detainees from 
Guantánamo: Nov. 4 (eight to Afghanistan, three to 
Jordan)

Personal items provided to detainees upon 
departure: a Koran, a denim jacket, a white 
T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, high-top sneakers, 
a gym bag of toiletries and a pillow and blanket 
for the flight home

Number of detainees said by Pentagon to have 
resumed hostile activities against the United 
States after release: at least 30

Number of United States senators who voted in 
favor of a nonbinding resolution that Guantánamo 
detainees "should not be released into American 
society, nor should they be transferred stateside 
into facilities in American communities and 
neighborhoods": 94

Number of bills in Congress calling for the 
closing of Guantánamo: 3

Number of members of the House of Representatives 
who signed a letter to President Bush in June 2007 
urging him to close Guantánamo and move the 
detainees to military prisons in the United 
States: 145

Number of Republicans who signed the letter: 1

Democratic presidential candidates who are on 
record supporting closing Guantánamo: 8

Republican presidential candidates who are: 2 
(John McCain and Ron Paul)

Closest American allies that have called for 
Guantánamo's closing: Britain, France, Germany

Next scheduled legal test of the Guantánamo 
system: Boumediene v. Bush, a challenge to the 
denial of habeas corpus, set for argument before 
the Supreme Court on Dec. 5



David Bowker, a lawyer in New York, and David 
Kaye, the acting director of the Program on 
International Human Rights Law at the University 
of California, Los Angeles, were staff lawyers at 
the State Department during the Clinton and Bush 
administrations.